Applications being accepted for Miss Columbia County Forestry and Pine Seedling Scholarship Pageant, to be held March 12 in Evans; deadline to enter Feb. 1; call or e-mail for application; (706) 664-5010, (706) 449-8196, localpageants@gmail.com

Seth Rainey bellowed the order at two foot soldiers decked out in Viking battle regalia, complete with weapons, hand-hammered helms and round wooden shields that the two locked together, shoulder to shoulder, in preparation for an enemy charge.

When Clay English was 11, he decided to turn part of his family’s front yard into a pumpkin patch for Halloween. Thirty-five years later, Clay’s Yard of Boos is still providing a Halloween experience for children in his neighborhood off Baston Road.

The pumpkin patch has expanded to take over the entire front yard as well as wind around in a maze.

“I do it mainly for the kids 12 and under, but the last couple of years, I’ve had college and high school students want to go through it,” he said.

The following accounts were taken from Columbia County Sheriff’s Office incident reports:

Woman walks up on car thief

A Martinez woman called authorities Sunday after seeing a man stealing items from her vehicle.

The 26-year-old woman said she walked outside to get her purse from her Toyota Tundra in the driveway of her Casey Court home just before 10 p.m. and saw a man leaning into the driver’s side of the truck with the door open.

Residents of Keg Creek Drive and streets branching from it are stuck inside the construction zone around the Keg Creek bridge.

The residents of the nearly 200 properties on Keg Creek Drive and the connecting streets including Dunn Court, Winfield Circle, Full Moon Drive, Keg Creek Circle and Chigoe Circle live within the 4.5-mile stretch of Washington Road that was closed in late May for the replacement of the bridge and widening of the road to add a middle passing lane from the bridge to Ray Owens Road and for major grade changes.